El Presidente Bush was visiting the area today, and there was a clip of him on the news talking about the cooperative efforts of the government and churches to reform America. Am I the only Christian in the country who is bothered by the fact that Bush wants these cooperative efforts take the form of easier access to government funding for religious charities and other programs? Maybe it's because I get a lot of my news from NPR, but the only people I've heard speaking out against the faith-based initiatives are people on the anti-religious end of the separation of church and state spectrum. (Of course, I also read WORLD magazine from time to time, and I have seen nothing in it to the contrary.)
Does anyone remember that the separation of church and state was also intended to protect the church? Why would we open ourselves up to the possibility of having to meet all of the weighty requirements the government currently demands of organizations that receive federal funds? To do so is to ask for a world of trouble down the road when our charitable programs have come to depend on government funds and are faced with the option of compromising core beliefs or ending the programs. It is hard to imagine that competing "on equal footing" with other, non-religious organizations for federal funds would not lead to any sort of significant compromise. (quote from White House website description of the faith-based initiatives)
Even more alarming is the thought that we Christians would forfeit the responsibility and privilege of supporting these programs entirely out of our own pockets. I'm not convinced of the wisdom of giving more to Caesar in the hope that Caesar will give to God's work what is rightfully God's to begin with, provided such work fits Caesar's qualifications. I suppose it's not enough that we've already allowed welfare and other government social programs to usurp some of our responsibilities as Christians in the name of equality.
Posted by waltondammerung at March 4, 2004 1:56 AMIt has warmed my heart to see you so passionate about a cause near and dear to me. But I have also been surprised, not to say disappointed, at the lack of response from your readers. I have been mulling over my response for over a week, and am now ready to post it:
You are, of course, correct in having a healthy distrust of government funds and the dependency that springs from their widespread application (I wonder where you learned that....). Many Christians feel the same way, particularly those whose social service ministries have had brushes, or rather, run-ins, with the government. I believe this is one reason this government-church collaboration has not moved forward very quickly. Many charities share your healthy fear, so support is lukewarm at best.
The interesting aspect of this notion of the government sending funds to faith based charities is that it springs from research now several years old that demonstrated that church supported ministries for the drug addicted, jobless, homeless, etc., have a success rate that far exceeds in every respect that of government programs. No surprise, except to those who believe that the government has all the answers. When these reports came out, some states began to look for ways direct money to programs that actually worked, rather than wasting their funds on government programs with a record of failure. That laudable end was stymied by, you guessed it, "the wall of separation."
Bush's present efforts stem more from this initial push to allow states to spend their money on programs that work, i.e., faith-based programs, rather than the "need" or clamoring of church related charities for government funds. Viewed from that perspective, the move is healthy. The goal is to remove roadblocks to states spending their welfare funds on programs that work, regardless of their religious ties.
That being said, it behooves us as Christians to support these ministries generously with our own funds, in order to prevent them from falling into the trap of dependence on government funds. Government spending on what is more effectively done by willing servants of Christ has given us the present situation: dependency, lack of personal responsibility, and injudicious "charity" going to many who would be better served by other means. As you observe, government has usurped, with our permission, our rightful realm as servants of our fellow man, and then carried out those responsibilities badly.
I suggest that anyone interested in this issue read The Tragedy of American Compassion by Marvin Olasky to find out what true charity is, and how far short indiscriminate government programs fall. True charity can only be administered with discerning wisdom that looks at individual needs without reference to a second grader's notions of "fairness" (meaning everything must be EXACTLY the same for everybody). Also, check out worldmagblog.com, where you might find some interesting discussion of these issues, or where you could start such a discussion.
"Whose image is on this coin?" Let Caesar have his temporal funds. In whose image have we been created? Let us render to God the things that are God's.
Posted by: Mom at March 14, 2004 9:15 PM